Archives Outside

For people who love, use and manage archives

Archives Outside - For people who love, use and manage archives

The Twelve Working Days Before Christmas (with an Archival Twist)

On the 12th working day before Christmas @srnsw gave to me… Twelve Blue Bells Dancing

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Eleven Ratters Cleansing

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Ten (Road) Safety Scholars

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Nine Budding Builders

builders

 

Eight Men a Milking

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Seven Lads a Sawing

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Six Hansom Cabbies

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Five Top-Hat Gents

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Four Boys a Singing

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Three Prisoners Posing

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Two Stranded Fire Commissioners

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and One Derailed Locomotive

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The SRNSW Lyrics

On the 12th working day before Christmas @srnsw gave to me…

12 Blue Bells Dancing

11 Ratters Cleaning

10 (Road) Safety Scholars

9 Budding Builders

8 Men a Milking

7 Lads a Sawin’

6 Hansom Cabbies

5 Top-Hat Gents

4 Boys Singing

3 Prisoners Posing

2 Stranded Fire Commissioners

And a Derailed Locomotive

 

*This post is brought to you by State Records Team Social Media (check out their work on Facebook, Twitter and Google+)

 

 

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!


beach santa

 

School Choir – highlights from NRS 15051 School Photographic Collection

The school choir – an integral part of any school music programme!

NRS 15051  School Photographic Collection captures choirs in full flight, group photos of choirs that have won competitions and scenes of ensembles practising in classrooms!

See more images from NRS 15051 here.

Caption: Coogee Public School - Singing Group Digital ID: 15051_a047_003191.jpg Date: 1947

Caption: Coogee Public School – Singing Group
Digital ID: 15051_a047_003191.jpg
Date: 1947

Caption: Albion Street Public School (Paddington) - winning choir at the Young People's Industrial Exhibition in 1901 Digital ID: 15051_a047_000074.jpg Date: 1901

Caption: Albion Street Public School (Paddington) – winning choir at the Young People’s Industrial Exhibition in 1901
Digital ID: 15051_a047_000074.jpg
Date: 1901

Caption: Drummoyne Public School - 6th Class Winning Choir Digital ID: 15051_a047_004391.jpg Date: 1941

Caption: Drummoyne Public School – 6th Class Winning Choir
Digital ID: 15051_a047_004391.jpg
Date: 1941

Caption: Duri Public School Digital ID: 15051_a047_004482.jpg Date: 1955

Caption: Duri Public School
Digital ID: 15051_a047_004482.jpg
Date: 1955

 

What we’ve been digitising in the #Archives

There are several digitisation projects happening here at State Records – some have been recently completed, others are long-term and will continue well into next year.

Recently completed

1954 Royal Tour

The Royal tour of Australia by Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Phillip, Duke of Edinburgh began in Sydney on 3 February 1954 and finished two months later in Fremantle, Western Australia on 1 April 1954.

This album shows images from the Sydney part of the tour, dated 3-18 February 1954, showing the Royal couple and decorations and illuminations of public buildings and parks.

Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh are greeted upon arrival at Farm Cove, Sydney for the Royal Visit, 1954 Sydney Streets decorated for the Royal Visit, 1954

Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh at the opening of NSW Parliament - Royal Visit, 1954 Sydney Harbour Bridge illuminated for the Royal Visit, 1954

Gloucester Police Station

Images are available in Archives Investigator.

showing for each day the type of duty in which each policeman, and where relevant his horse, was engaged. The special occurrences column records such details as visits from senior police officers; transfers of staff; stores received; reports of crimes committed; warrants and summonses issued.
description from Archives Investigator

Diary of duty and occurrences at the Gloucester Police Station during the week ending the 10th day of July 1880

Long term projects

School photos

The History Unit of the Department of School Education collected these photographs when preparing school histories, research for public relations, or giving presentations. The collection consists mainly of photographic prints showing school buildings, pupils, teachers, or educational activities. Most include an identifying caption and date.

There are c.900 photos available in Photo Investigator and many more to come. The photos are arranged in alphabetical order by school and we are currently up to “C”.

Note that only material out of copyright will be available online.

Chakola Public School - Education Gazette - rough plan of school area at Public School Chakola showing plantation of trees and shrubs, 1 Feb 1922. Digital ID 15051_a047_002775  Adaminaby Public School c.1905. Digital ID 15051_a047_000019

Alma Public School - opening of new playground for infants department. Digital ID 15051_a047_000142 Balmain Trade School - engineering workshop. Digital ID 15051_a047_000625
We’ll have another digitisation update soon.

Scenic photos and ghosts in the archives – radio interview with State Records

Our Creative Producer, Susan Charlton, was interviewed recently on the ABC 702 Morning Show with Linda Mottram. She spoke about a series of photos in our collection that you’d be familiar with – NRS 12932, Original prints used in NSW trains, c.1935-c.1969

Susan has put the photos together for a slideshow-travelogue called Archive of Mesmersing Views which is being presented at the Penrith Regional Gallery, 2pm this Saturday 8 February.

Archive of Mesmerising Views

Linda Mottram blogged about these scenic photos and there is also a link to the interview in the post. Susan has a great voice for radio, don’t take our word for it, it’s mentioned in the interview!

A look back at the Lands and Education buildings (soon to be upmarket hotels)

As talk of selling two NSW Government-owned sandstone buildings in Sydney hots up, we take a quick trip down memory lane and re-visit some old photos highlighting the Lands Department and Education Department in Bridge Street. The Lands Department was once an imposing building on the Sydney street-scape and you could see the magnificent dome from all angles.

Department of Lands building in central Sydney is poised to host travellers of a wholly different kind, as the state government attempts to sell the site for use as an upmarket hotel…

…The Renaissance Revival-style building in Bridge Street near Circular Quay, completed in the 1890s, was once Sydney’s largest…

…state government has invited investors to convert the historic site, and the adjacent Education Department building, into high-end hotels.

Read the full Sydney Morning Herald article »

New South Wales Lands Department Building, Bridge Street, Sydney, c.1900. Digital ID 4481_a026_000354

NSW Lands Department Building, Bridge Street, Sydney, c.1900

New South Wales Lands Department Building, Bridge Street, Sydney, n.d. Digital ID: 4481_a026_000350

NSW Lands Department Building, Bridge Street, Sydney, n.d

NSW Lands Department Building, Bridge Street, n.d. Digital ID 4481_a026_000343

NSW Lands Department Building, Bridge Street, n.d

Entrance to the Department of Public Instruction Building, n.d. Digital ID 4481_a026_000243

Entrance to the Department of Public Instruction Building, n.d.

Medical, nursing and administration staff of the Medical Branch, taken in the old building of the Department of Public Instruction, 1913. Digital ID 4882_a004_a004000020r

Medical, nursing and administration staff of the Medical Branch, taken in the old building of the Department of Public Instruction, 1913

View of Bridge Street, Sydney, n.d. Digital ID 4481_a026_000435

View of Bridge Street, Sydney, n.d.

'Avenue of the Nations', Bridge Street, Sydney (NSW), decorated for the visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York, 1901. Digital ID 4481_a026_000290

‘Avenue of the Nations’, Bridge Street, Sydney (NSW), decorated for the visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York, 1901.

'Avenue of the Nations', Bridge Street, Sydney (NSW), decorated for the visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York, 1901. Digital ID 4481_a026_000919

‘Avenue of the Nations’, Bridge Street, decorated for the visit of the Duke and Duchess of Cornwall and York, 1901.

Listen to State Records staff talk about travel and transport archives in our collection

On the State Records website we have uploaded several podcasts and accompanying slideshows presented by staff at Open Day back in August. As you know, the theme of the day was travel and transport and these presentations cover a broad selection under this category: from convict transport to railroads, cars and road construction.

Toot, toot!

Toot, toot!

What can you listen to?

1. The train that Thought it Could: Blue Mountains Railways

Looking at the development and expansion of the railway line through the Blue Mountains and how arrival of the Great Western Line saw a period of rapid growth for the towns along the railway.

Presenter: Suzanne Upton, Archivist, Public Access

2. Sentenced Beyond the Seas: Convicts transported to NSW, 1788-1801

State Records’ Sentenced beyond the Seas project revealed tales of convict fraud, the origins of Australia’s love of beer, executions and more. Join Janette to hear the tales of our earliest convicts from 1788 to 1801.

Presenter: Janette Pelosi, Senior Archivist

3. I’ve Been Workin’ on the Railroad: Family history gems in transport records

Highlighting some of the government transport employee records we hold such as railway personal history cards and registers of Tram employees. We also look at some Maritime Services Board records concerning qualifications and licensing.

Presenter: Gail Davis,Senior Archivist, Research, State Records NSW

4. Here Come the Cars!

Stories from the early history of Automobiles in NSW told through the eyes of prominent and seedy characters of NSW History. A showcasing of hidden automotive treasures of State Records NSW.

Presenter: John Cann, Archivist, Public Access

Still to come

Carrying the Load: Transport in NSW during WWII

Despite the popular view that Australia was unprepared for war, material in the State archives proves NSW had been involved in national planning for many years before the ‘surprise’ attacks of 1942.

Presenter: Jennifer Sloggett, Archivist, Archives Control

Digital Archives migration methodology exposure draft

digital-archives

The State Records NSW Digital Archives project team has released the Digital Archives migration methodology as an exposure draft on the State Records website.

Digital archiving presents many challenges regarding preservation, storage and access but included with these is the challenge of transferring digital records required as State archives from agencies to State Records. Whilst State Records has well established procedures and processes for transferring physical format records required as State archives the transfer of their digital format equivalents is new for State Records. There are many requirements that are the same for the transfer of both physical and digital format records but the transfer digital format records does require new processes to be established.

The migration methodology has been developed by the Digital Archives project team to establish a means of managing transfers of digital records required for retention as State archives. These transfers will be undertaken as migrations from agency systems to the State Records Digital Archives.

The methodology provides a structured framework to manage these migrations as projects. Development of the methodology has focused on producing an adaptable, flexible and scalable model that can be used to manage different types of migration scenarios to the Digital Archives repository.

State Records is seeking comment on the exposure draft. Comments can be submitted via email to Paul Elliott, Project Officer Digital Archives: paul.elliott@records.nsw.gov.au. The methodology will be open for comment until Friday 25 October 2013.

Hey, all you cricket tragics, do you know your cricket history?

If you like sport and history you might like this news article from The West Australian highlighting an early sketch of a cricket game, dated 1834. Interestingly, the sketch is from a surveyor’s field book – held in the West Australian State Records Office – and includes other drawings of early colonial life.

It was discovered during a digitisation project and is possibly the earliest Australian sketch of the game. It just goes to show there are many hidden treasures in the archives.

One of the figures appears to be dressed in a sailor’s clothing and has just bowled a cricket ball….

At the other end of the pitch, a batsman awaits, bat raised, in what could be the earliest known depiction of a game of cricket in Australia…

The drawing, in a WA surveyor’s field book dated 1834, has come to light during work by the State Records Office to digitise colonial surveyors’ field books held in the State archives.

Check it out, underarm bowling!

Thanks to Archives Live for the original post.